Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. 2 Fans?

[CGunn86]

I'm thinking of getting the Hyper 212 EVO for my i5-4690K and pushing it to 4.2 - 4.5GHz. I notice it only comes with 1 fan and was wondering if buying a 2nd fan is a good idea for a push/pull configuration. If I order a separate 120mm fan will I be able to mount it to the 212 EVO? Does it come with a second fan mount/bracket?

NOTE: I am deaf and live alone so the noise factor a 2nd fan might generate is irrelevant to me

 

[Rogue Leader]

It comes with an extra pair of fan brackets, the extra fan will help definitely and may let you squeeze a bit more. For the $8 you can usually get one for, its worth it.

 

[synphul]

There's hardly any difference using push (single fan) vs dual fan (push/pull). The cases where push/pull tend to improve performance are thicker coolers or thicker radiators where a single fan may not have the pressure to get good flow all the way through the cooling fins. You'd be better off saving your money and investing in a better cooler.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1199135/hyper-212-testing-push-vs-pull-vs-push-pull-also-horizontal-vs-vertical-positioning

Unless your ambient temps are really high in the room your pc is in, 4.2-4.3ghz on the 4690k should be fine on the 212 evo with a single fan. Depending on how well your 4690k overclocks, if it manages to reach overclocks on relatively lower voltage at the cores (vcore) you may be able to do 4.4ghz. It will depend on your specific cpu and whether it takes average, less than average or higher than average vcore to remain stable and how far you push the overclock combined with your specific ambient room temps.

 

[CGunn86]

There's hardly any difference using push (single fan) vs dual fan (push/pull). The cases where push/pull tend to improve performance are thicker coolers or thicker radiators where a single fan may not have the pressure to get good flow all the way through the cooling fins. You'd be better off saving your money and investing in a better cooler.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1199135/hyper-212-testing-push-vs-pull-vs-push-pull-also-horizontal-vs-vertical-positioning

Unless your ambient temps are really high in the room your pc is in, 4.2-4.3ghz on the 4690k should be fine on the 212 evo with a single fan. Depending on how well your 4690k overclocks, if it manages to reach overclocks on relatively lower voltage at the cores (vcore) you may be able to do 4.4ghz. It will depend on your specific cpu and whether it takes average, less than average or higher than average vcore to remain stable and how far you push the overclock combined with your specific ambient room temps.

You mention saving the money and investing in a better cooler. I thought the 212 EVO was sort of the "go to" for air cooling. Is there a better air cooler I should be looking at?

 

[synphul]

The 212 evo is a good cooler, it's held up well considering how old of a design it is. It's still a budget cooler though and because it's a budget cooler its performance is respectable. More or less the go-to cheap cooler. It depends how high you're looking to overclock, though at some point you'll be limited by the cpu itself and how much core voltage it takes to get to the next multiplier.

For instance my specific cpu didn't want to go to 4.7ghz until I raised the vcore to around 1.35 or 1.36v which personally I don't feel comfortable running 24/7. Most consider 1.4v to be the upper ceiling of 'safe' unless you're a pro overclocker who likes to roll the dice. 1.3v or under is preferable for everyday use. Even if my temps were held at 75c under load it doesn't mean I could keep raising the multiplier and vcore to something drastic like 1.54v so temps aren't always the limiting factor.

I don't know how much further your cpu can go and at what vcore. You might be fine up to 4.3 or so on the 212 evo but going with a larger more expensive cooler may only get you to 4.5 or 4.6ghz before your cpu sort of 'tops out'. You should be able to do 4.2 with the current cooler. Is it worth replacing your cooler with something like a noctua nh-d14 for around $75 in order to gain another 300-400mhz? That's up to you. That's where larger air coolers like the nh-d14, cryorig r1 ultimate, phanteks tc14pe, nh-d15, dark rock pro 3 and similar larger air coolers come in, reaching max overclocks where heat is the limitation.

The 212 evo has a thermal dissipation rating of 180w (heat, not electricity consumption). A larger cooler like the dark rock pro3 has a thermal dissipation rating of 250w. The noctua nh-d14 cools around the same or a degree or two better so I would say it also dissipates heat in the range of 250w+. Depending on what case you have, how tall of a cooler it will accept the thermalright true spirit 140 power is one of the best values at around $50 with cooling performance on par with the nh-d14. It's a really tall cooler though and not all cases will fit it.

The tc14pe is available for around $70 and that becomes the range for larger air coolers, $70-80. A cryorig h5 universal might be a decent middle of the road option, better than the 212 evo, not quite as cool as the nh-d14 but the price is around the middle ground at $42 and the universal uses a slim fan to avoid any ram conflicts.

 

[Namdhda]

Another option you have, pretty hillbilly if you do this, but you could screw a 120-to-140mm adapter onto the extra brackets to have a 140 pulling air through instead of a 120 pulling air through. You'd get points for originality, that's for sure. You could even use your tower's 140, if it came with one, and then take a 140mm duct and pipe the hot air directly to the grill where the 140 was originally mounted. How effective that would be over just adding a 2nd 120, I can't tell you, but it would turn heads.

 

[synphul]

I don't think the 140mm fan approach would benefit any if at all. 140mm fans typically run slower rpm, 120mm fans tend to run higher rpm and as a result, more focused and higher static pressure for pushing air through the cooling fins. If someone wants the cooling that a 212 evo offers, then it's a good choice. If they want better cooling, buy a better cooler.

By the time someone buys a 212 evo and an additional fan they've invested as much as a cryorig h7 or h5. Both cool slightly better than the 212 evo. Even if you replaced the stock fan with something like a coolermaster jetflo 120mm capable of pushing 95cfm at a less than ideal 36dba (aka loud), the 212 evo can only do so much. It's limited to 4 heat pipes with a 6mm diameter.

Larger air coolers like the nh-d14 use a different cooler base, 6x 6mm dual heat pipes and twice as many fans along with dual cooling fin towers. The dark rock pro 3 uses 7x 6mm heatpipes with a dual fan/dual cooling fin tower design.

I have a 4690k oc'd to 4.2ghz using a 212 evo and it works fine. It wasn't worth adding a second fan and had the cryorig h7 been on the market yet I would have bought it instead. Just for the ram clearance issue if nothing else, but at a lower oc the 212 evo works fine. My other 4690k is oc'd to 4.6ghz and since it sees heavier loads like gaming (the lower clocked i5 is for a workstation, not gaming) it runs with a larger air cooler. Being fair choosing a larger air cooler was also to have lower temps and low noise which doesn't seem to be a concern in this case. I still wouldn't try to push an i5 to 4.5+ and run it under heavy loads with a 212 evo.

 

[Namdhda]

I just upgraded to the Tt water 3.0 Ultimate (and loving it), and i put my 212 evo sideways on a blue led 120 in front of my psu. Useless and more than likely hinders performance but i dont care because it looks like a nuclear reactor LOL